


Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)

by Miaou Jones (miaoujones)



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Western, F/F, Genderbending, Illustrated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-16
Updated: 2010-07-16
Packaged: 2017-10-13 23:35:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/142922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miaoujones/pseuds/Miaou%20Jones
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ameriko returns from her latest Pony Express ride to learn a new saloon girl has come to Hetalia Town.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)

**Author's Note:**

> In an art request thread over at [the USxUK comm](http://community.livejournal.com/usxuk/866318.html), I asked for cowgirl!America/saloongirl!England, with the promise, "If you art it, I will fic it." [Technoranma](http://technoranma.livejournal.com) was the first to take me up on that. True to my word, this is something to go along with her seriously awesome art, which I've also included here. Thank you, Technoranma, for bringing my whim to life like this! ♥
> 
>  
> 
> The title comes from a Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel song of the same name—but I re-read the lyrics just now for the first time in years and they're much, much darker than this is intended to be. So go with the title and not the song in this case, if you please.

Ameriko pushes open both doors to the saloon and stands there for a moment, letting herself adjust to the light inside. Russia used to try telling her that if she just walked straight in, she wouldn't have to adjust to the backlight effect she was causing—but after about the dozenth time she walked in straight and let the doors snap back on him, he stopped trying to dissuade her from her style.

At first it looks empty in here, which is unusual for this time of day. Then as she starts forward again, Ameriko notices a sizeable group of men crowded around one of the tables. She jerks a thumb at them as she bellies up to the bar. "Ace card game or what?"

"Or what," Hungary replies, sliding her the shot of whiskey he poured as soon as she appeared in the doorway. "New saloon girl. Where's your partner?"

"Sacked out." It was a hard ride there and a hard ride back, but the mail must go through—and it does, every time Ameriko or Russia carries it. So they take the hardest routes and ride together whenever they can. "Got shot at," she says, turning back to the bar at last and tossing back the shot. She pushes the glass across the bartop and nods for another. Shrugging out of her duster, she sticks her fingers through the new bullet holes in the shoulder. "Missed me and him both, but they got my jacket and his hat."

"Good thing they didn't get yours," Hungary says as he pours the whiskey.

"Damn good thing for them." Ameriko grins but there's no humor in her voice. You can mess with a lot of things, but one thing you don't mess with is Ameriko's hat.

As the liquid fire is sliding down her throat, Ameriko's whiskey pleasure is interrupted by the thud of a chair overturning, the screech of a table scraping over the floor, and the inarticulate jostlings that foretell the breakout of a brawl.

"Hey!" Ameriko slams down the shot glass as she whirls, regretful in a back part of her mind that she's taken off the duster, which would have swirled with a nice flair. She reaches for the pearl-handled six-shooter tucked into the back of her waistband as she strides over. "Hey now!" Her forefinger nestles comfortably with the trigger but she doesn't draw yet as she shoulders her way through the crowd. She's seen what happens when men get to fighting over a woman, especially one they think they have a right to. It's not pretty, especially for the woman. "Get off—"

Ameriko stops mid-sentence, mid-stride.

The new saloon girl is perched on a table, feet crossed at the ankles as they dangle. A light flush, natural, dusts her cheeks. An ivory-tipped cigarette holder extends from the fingers of one gloved hand, the cigarette unlit, as she hasn't chosen yet from among the match flames her assembled admirers are practically climbing over themselves to offer her.

"Well, now—you ain't in trouble at all, are ya?" Ameriko cocks a grin as she relaxes, letting go of her gun and taking the few remaining steps at a slow saunter.

The new girl looks up at her, through long lashes, over the top of the wire-framed rims of her spectacles. "A lady need not be in trouble to desire salvation."

Ameriko laughs. "I don't even know what that means," she confesses, "but you sure talk pretty." Pulling over a stool, she takes a seat. "If a hero's what you're after, I'll be your huckleberry." Ameriko is not one hundred percent on what that means, either, but she liked it when she read it in a Doc Holliday story and has been waiting for a chance to use it ever since.

With a smoothness that makes the exact movements hard to register, the new girl slides off the table and into Ameriko's lap. When she rests two fingers on the brim of Ameriko's hat, a sharp gasp spreads like wildfire through the men; a few take a step back. Ameriko doesn't even bat an eyelash, though.

  


  


The new girl does bat her eyelashes, all of them, flutter-like. "I like your hat."

"Do you, now?" Ameriko grins more as she removes it, setting off a murmuring among the men. She doesn't hear what they're saying, though, seeing as she's too occupied with gazing into the greenest eyes she's ever seen. Nothing in her memory compares to them and Ameriko is too much of a straight-shooter for metaphors, anyhow, so she leaves it at that as she revels in the greenest eyes. "Well, why don't you try it on?" Without breaking the gaze, she reaches up to set it on the new girl's head.

It doesn't feel like it's sitting right, though. When Ameriko looks up, she sees the problem: the new girl's pigtails. Without a word, Ameriko pulls out one tie and the girl's hair tumbles down, soft as anything as it brushes over Ameriko's lingering hand.

When the new girl takes out the other tie and lets the rest of her hair cascade down, the hat settles in place. It might clash with the elegance of her lace and silk, but Ameriko thinks it looks good.

"I'm Igiko."

Ameriko smiles. "Pleased to meet ya. I'm—"

"My huckleberry." Igiko slips off Ameriko's lap, landing lightly on her feet. "I know." Fingers on the brim again, she pushes the hat down over Ameriko's eyes. "You make me smile," she says. "Come up and see me sometime."

The girl hasn't curved her lips upwards once and Ameriko feels sure she isn't curving them upwards now, but there's ways to smile without your mouth. "I'll do that," Ameriko says from beneath her hat, smiling herself as she hears Igiko walk away.


End file.
